A Gay New Church for a Brave New World

Just days ago, it was reported (link here) that, when meeting a victim of sexual abuse from Chile, the Pope told him something quite unexpected:

“He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are,’” Cruz told Spanish newspaper El País.

Today, the Wall Street Journal expanded on this papal openness to the "happiness" of "gay" life. Based on the proposal by some German bishops, led by Cardinal Marx of Munich, to allow for the blessing of "same-sex unions", the Journal's knowledgeable Rome correspondent concludes with the following:

[I]t’s hard to imagine the Vatican under Pope Francis categorically forbidding priests around the world from such activity [the blessing of same-sex unions]. Not only would such a prohibition clash with the welcoming tone the pope has adopted toward gays; but it would also conflict with the emphasis he has placed on the exercise of individual conscience, rather than the observance of strict rules, in moral decision-making.

As more governments around the world legalize same-sex marriage, the Catholic Church’s internal debate over whether to recognize such unions—and if so, how—is likely to get only more intense and fractious.

The civil war within the Church, already so hot, is about to become explosive. Apocalyptic, as Cardinal Eijk reminded us just a couple of weeks ago:

Observing that the bishops and, above all, the Successor of Peter fail to maintain and transmit faithfully and in unity the deposit of faith contained in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, I cannot help but think of Article 675 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“The Church’s ultimate trial

Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.”